Day-Brite Capri Omega (DCO) has opened the world's first
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certified
Lighting Institute (LEED-CI) designed to educate visitors about the
importance of good lighting and highlight the importance of energy
conservation. The 5,000-square-foot DCO Lighting Institute, located
within the company's plant in Tupelo, Miss., will utilize products and
techniques that represent the best lighting practices, balancing
functionality, controllability and energy consumption in accordance
with IESNA/ASHRAE guidelines.

"The demonstration of DCO's lighting capabilities in both product
and design configurations will be a centerpiece of the new facility.
The intended purpose is to be able to demonstrate lighting executions that satisfy energy code requirements for a particular application or task while improving on both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the overall environment," said Jim O'Hargan, VP/General Manager. "Moreover, the Lighting Institute will itself be certified by LEED under the Commercial Interiors category. By following the LEED guidelines, we improved on our original design intent and therefore want to be able to share this beneficial experience with our customers and visitors. "

The new facility will accommodate 40 visitors at a time and will
be open to the public by mid-year. There are two main educational
spaces in this new facility: a Mock-up room and a Technology
Classroom. The Mock-up room has a ceiling that can be raised or
lowered to duplicate the look of an actual installation. The
Technology Classroom area was designed to showcase product
introductions and will allow for side-by-side comparisons to make it
easy to compare light performance in different applications.

The focus in that area will be on the aesthetics and rendered look
of the luminaire, along with installed light output and energy
consumption. The Technology Classroom includes other demonstration areas such as color booths where the fundamentals of light source technology is addressed; a general overhead lighting area of approximately 1000 square feet for addressing the basic lighting protocols in commercial lighting design with over 20 different lighting techniques possible; and a wall lighting interactions area where a variety of point and linear wall-washing and grazing executions are demonstrated.

"This Training & Education Center, which we have been discussing
for years, is a very important milestone for our company," said
O'Hargan. "By having the Lighting Institute in our manufacturing
plant, we can show our guests how we manufacture DCO lighting
products. Few, if any, of our competitors can offer the same
experience."